Instead of half-and-half in your coffee, how about butter and eggs?

A company called Coffee Blocks has started a Kickstarter campaign to fund production of instant butter coffee pods. Shown is a cup of coffee from Groundworks Coffee in L.A.

A company called Coffee Blocks has started a Kickstarter campaign to fund production of instant butter coffee pods. Shown is a cup of coffee from Groundworks Coffee in L.A. (Spencer Weiner / Los Angeles Times)

Jenn Harris

Ever heard of butter coffee? This company has a Kickstarter to make instant butter coffee pods

A Los Angeles-based company called Coffee Blocks is hoping you'll reach past the half-and-half and instead give butter, coconut oil and egg yolks a try in your morning brew.

The company, started by former athletes Tom Meredith, Steven Kiefer and Chad Galbreath, has created a Kickstarter campaign to fund production of its instant butter coffee. It's a drink that contains grass-fed butter, organic coconut oil, organic fair trade coffee, organic vanilla and free-range egg yolks.

"People have preconceptions about what health food tastes like and most haven't even considered what adding butter to coffee tastes like," said Meredith. "Butter isn't much different than heavy whipping cream."

If you're wondering why anyone would want to put a pat of butter in their coffee, the idea isn't actually as odd as it sounds. Butter tea, made with tea, yak butter and salt is a popular Tibetan drink, believed to help keep energy levels high.

Here in the U.S., Bulletproof Coffee owner Dave Asprey created a butter coffee using Bulletproof Coffee with butter and medium-chain triglycerides from coconut and/or palm kernel oil. Asprey claims the coffee helps with energy and focus.

Meredith started making the butter coffee as a way to add what he calls more healthy fats to his diet, but found it was difficult to make at work.

"My coworkers started to get irritated with the fridge full of butter, the giant tub of coconut oil, and the equipment needed to make butter coffee," said Meredith. "I'm a bit of a hacker at heart, so I started looking for solutions. I figured out how to make individual blocks of the usual ingredients."

The blocks are small coffee pods that contain butter, coconut oil, coffee, egg yolk and vanilla. To make the butter coffee, you drop the pod into hot water, then stir.

"It's smooth, a little sweet -- though there's no sugar or sweetener in it -- and it's pretty filling," said Meredith. "The usual reaction is 'Actually, this tastes better than I expected.' "

The Coffee Blocks Kickstarter campaign had 177 backers and $14,988 pledged of its $35,000 goal at the time of publication. Meredith, Kiefer and Galbreath started making the coffee blocks in a local kitchen. With funding from Kickstarter, they'll start manufacturing on a larger scale.

If you're looking to try butter coffee at home, you can check out the original Bulletproof Coffee recipe. Or you can just keep it simple, and add a splash of half-and-half.